There is no way the “wall against drones” can be ready within a year. This was said on the air of “Your Day” on NOVA NEWS by the former Minister of Defense Todor Tagarev.
The leaders of the European Union gathered in Copenhagen to discuss urgent and urgent measures for the construction of an air shield along the eastern flank of the bloc. The main task is the creation of the so-called "wall against drones", which will include Bulgaria and at least 6 other countries. The informal summit comes in response to a series of cases in which drones of suspected Russian origin closed the airspace over critical infrastructure in countries in Eastern and Northern Europe.
“Within a year, a partial “drone wall” could be built, since NATO's system, which also covers the eastern flank for air and missile defense, has not been developed. No one imagined that something like this could happen - a massive invasion of relatively cheap drones, and along with them a missile attack. This is something that Ukraine has been experiencing for more than 2 years,” Tagarev explained.
According to him, over 800 aircraft participated in some of these massive strikes within just a few hours. “We do not have the technology, the armed forces, the organization, the command and control system that would allow us to quickly build such a system”, the former Minister of Defense believes.
According to him, within a year a network of sensors can be built through which information can be collected and summarized in order to make a decision. But the creation of means of defeating drones will take longer.
“The saturation of the eastern flank with such systems of defeat will be slow. We do not yet have sufficiently effective means of defeat. It is possible that our military has not even seen an interceptor drone, such as those recently used in Ukraine. The organization of the armed forces will also take time. There is no way this can be ready within a year”, commented Tagarev.
“One of the solutions is to finance the project from the European Defense White Paper with the additional funds that the member states can allocate in their budgets. They are not subject to the Copenhagen restrictions on budget deficit and public debt”, he explained.
According to him, another option is to finance the system through loans granted by the European Commission. Of these, about 3 billion euros are earmarked for Bulgaria, and the country will have to start repaying the funds after 10 years.